TCPDF vulnerable to attackers triggering deserialization of arbitrary data

published 2018-09-14 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also GHSA-5hw4-m7f3-hhx8 , EUVD-2022-7027

cvss: 9.8; version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 26.2%; EPSS 26.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 98%
public exploits: 1; Exploit-DB

An issue was discovered in TCPDF before 6.2.22. Attackers can trigger deserialization of arbitrary data via the phar:// wrapper.

Patch / fix

fixed in 6 distros 1 links 2

packagist tecnickcom/tcpdf 6.2.22
packagist fooman/tcpdf 6.2.22
packagist la-haute-societe/tcpdf 6.2.22
packagist spoonity/tcpdf 6.2.22
tecnick tcpdf 6.2.22
limesurvey limesurvey 3.16.0

tcpdf Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 6.2.26+dfsg-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-17057

github.com/tecnickcom/TCPDF@1861e33 commit
github.com/LimeSurvey/LimeSurvey@1cdd78d commit

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2018-17057 updated 2025-11-21 cvss 7.8

php-tcpdf: phar deserialization in TCPDF might lead to RCE

Red Hat All currently supported Red Hat products
not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Timeline

2018-09-14 Published
2019-04-02 First public exploit (EDB-46634)

Exploit prediction

26.17% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 98% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

EDB-46634 LimeSurvey < 3.16 - Remote Code Execution webapps, 2019-04-02
packetstormsecurity.com http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/152360/LimeSurvey-Deserialization-Remote-Code-Execution.html referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
NVD	3.0	9.8	CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD	2.0	7.5	AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
GitHub	3.0	9.8	CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem	package	affected	fixed in
packagist	tecnickcom/tcpdf	<6.2.22	6.2.22
packagist	fooman/tcpdf	<6.2.22	6.2.22
packagist	la-haute-societe/tcpdf	<6.2.22	6.2.22
packagist	spoonity/tcpdf	<6.2.22	6.2.22

Classification

Weakness

CWE-502 Deserialization of Untrusted Data

References

github.com /tecnickcom/TCPDF/commit/1861e33fe05f653b67d070f7c106463e7a5c26ed
web, patch, third-party-advisory
github.com /LimeSurvey/LimeSurvey/commit/1cdd78d27697b3150bb44aaa7af1a81062a591a5
web, patch, third-party-advisory
exploit-db.com /exploits/46634/
exploit, third-party-advisory, vdb-entry
packetstormsecurity.com /files/152360/LimeSurvey-Deserialization-Remote-Code-Execution.html
web, exploit, third-party-advisory, vdb-entry
seclists.org /fulldisclosure/2019/Mar/36
mailing-list, web, third-party-advisory
packetstormsecurity.com /files/152200/TCPDF-6.2.19-Deserialization-Remote-Code-Execution.html
web, third-party-advisory, vdb-entry
contao.org /en/news/security-vulnerability-cve-2018-17057.html
web, third-party-advisory
nvd.nist.gov /vuln/detail/CVE-2018-17057
advisory
github.com /FriendsOfPHP/security-advisories/blob/master/fooman/tcpdf/CVE-2018-17057.yaml
web
github.com /FriendsOfPHP/security-advisories/blob/master/la-haute-societe/tcpdf/CVE-2018-17057.yaml
web
github.com /FriendsOfPHP/security-advisories/blob/master/spoonity/tcpdf/CVE-2018-17057.yaml
web
github.com /FriendsOfPHP/security-advisories/blob/master/tecnickcom/tcpdf/CVE-2018-17057.yaml
web
github.com /FriendsOfPHP/security-advisories/blob/master/wallabag/tcpdf/CVE-2018-17057.yaml
web
github.com /tecnickcom/TCPDF
package
exploit-db.com /exploits/46634
web

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

Summary